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The World of Rhud
'The World of Rhud' If there is one truth about Rhud, it is that it is a dry, unforgiving place. In the entirety of the known world, there are only a few freshwater rivers and lakes. There are no oceans, and lakes beyond the size of a few acres are briny and of no use to drink. 'The Kadrak Plateau' The peoples of the known world are largely concentrated in the Central Empire, a tightly-controlled conferderation of five kingdoms ruled by a sixth. The world of Rhud is ruled from the Obsidian Throne in the city of Cinneraque. From this seat of power, over 40 generations of God-Kings have held dominance over the peoples of the world; and in any direction from the throne lies a thousand unbroken miles of total Imperial authority. Life in the Empire is hard for the majority of its inhabitants; many live in slavery, most live in a form of serfdom. The best way out of the terrible life fated to all Rhudic peoples is to join the military, wherein one may find glory and plunder if one survives long enough in the never-ending campaigns against the warlords of the South and East. Ultimately, all power goes back to the Obsidian Throne, upon which sits Bouros, 5th of his line, 4th line of Emperors of Rhun. His power is absolute-- he may determine the moment of death for any man, woman, or child in his kingdom, and ritual often demands this sacrifice. All of the God-Kings have weilded strange, magical powers, and all have had unnaturally long lives, some living to 70 or 80 years. Some in history have ruled fairly, though it has been many generations since a good king or queen has ruled, and despotism has replaced responsibility. Bouros has secrured his line with what is said to be 100 sons, though the actual number is probably much higher. Each of these sons seeks his father's favour, for only one of them can be the next God-Emperor, and tradition dictates that it be the strongest. There has been considerable infighting between the sons and miscellaneous factions, and this has tied up the Empire and kept it from concentrating on outside threats, though this is in no way different from how the Empire has always operated. Outside its borders, there are raiders to the South and East, and The Wastes (known as the Waien) to the North and West. Beyond these bordering regions there is nothing known, for no-one has ever crossed the wastes and lived-- or at least none has bothered to return. A human of any stripe in the Empire can expect a healthy 40 years of obedience and hard work; this is a clean 10 years longer than in the outlands, where a natural death is unusual enough to be celebrated by friends and family as a life fully lived. The sun is hot enough in the outlands to scorch a man alive, and it would not unusual if the moons of that same evening bear witness to his body freezing to the round. 'The Waien/The Wastes' While life in the outlands is hard, it is free. The hardy survivors have in recent years banded together to form far-flung outposts around sources of water. For three generations, they have been able to eke out a subsistence living in the wastes, and a loose set of roads have connected these settlements, allowing for a bit of trade and travel. While the people of the wastes have largely kept to themselves, any secret has a finite lifespan. Recently, the Emperor became aware of the wasteland settlements (or at least the fact that they were managing to subsist), and has recently taken action to eradicate the wastes of these "rebel elements". Many Outlanders remember life in the Empire, and many of those left as fugitives. The Outlanders have begun to catch wind of the impending war, and some have left for points further west and south. Of these, few will survive the first year. Death at the hands of Bouros's men being an inevitability, this might be the more prudent choice. 'Of Monsters and Men' The inhospitable desert of Rhud is home to numerous creatures and peoples, all hardened by the inhospitable environment. In all lands, one can find mundane creatures of Rhud: snakes, birds, coyotes, lizards, desert foxes, wild horses, buffalo, great lizards, oliphaunts, and great cats. 'The Outlands' To the south of the Empire are the monstrous kin-- giants, goblins, and orcs of such diverse kind that there is no defining one from the other. These southern lands are given over to these strange creatures, their cities,and their wars, and little is known of their kind, aside from their prodigious number, infighting, and xenophobia. In the northeastern Blight Lands, mutants and gibbering blobs of flesh and ooze roam, consuming all living matter. Their efforts seem random and uncoordinated most of the time, though they can occasionally act with terrible efficiency, sweeping to the defense-walls of the empire, slaughtering and ravaging before seemingly losing cohesion again. No 'normal' beings live in the blight lands, and nothing is known of the lands beyond as no one has survived the trip. To the East are the Endless Sands, home to enormous Mantas that burrow beneath the dunes during the day and take flight during the night, seeking prey. Magic-Speakers and animistic Shamans occasionally wander into the Kadrak, bearing strange eastern fruits and advanced knowledge and medicine. They are said to know secrets of the world, but their tales are vague, contradictory, and largely apocryphal. The nomadic peoples of this land have little to do with the people of the Empire, much less points west of it. They are known to breed oliphaunts and ride them in caravans that are occasionally spotted at a distance. They are keepers of secrets, and stories about of lands beyond the East where there are vast bodies of water, beautiful men and women, mountains of gold, and flying cities. As one travels Southeast and passes south of the lands of the Eastern People, the skies begin taking on a reddish hue and the sun appears less distinctly in the sky. The oppressive heat diminishes during the day, and at night, complete blackness envelops the land, but the killing freeze of the Waien and Kadrak is not present. LIttle to nothing is known about the duskenings, and the Eastern People do not speak of it. During the absolute darkness of night, unusual predators pick off the few caravans fool enough to attempt a transit. None are known to have made it past the Eastern Sands. 'The Waien' In the north and western Waste are few living things, but along its edge live Giant Lizards and Giant Insects of many kinds, some carnivorous, along with tunneling wyrms and Bulettes. These creatures will sometimes make great migrations, and can be found in the open desert at certain times. It is said that some of the ruins here are inhabited by haunts and moving skeletons. There is the legend of the Old Man of the Desert, who will tempt travellers into the sun and strand them to die; another legend is the Rat-Man of Alabasthir, who demands food offerings and leads hungry desert beasts to those who spurn him. A few hardy humans, elves, drwarves, and halflings live in the wastes, exiles from other lands. The few wasteland settlements are insular, isolated, and concentrated near the edge of the Kadrak. As one goes further Northwest into the Waste, the sun gets hotter and hotter, and those who have traveled to the far wastes have reported a sea of glass, where the air is thinned to the point where asphyxiation is a hazard on top of the expected heat death and dehydration. As this is nearly a thousand miles from the last Wasteland city, it is remarkable that any tales exist at all. 'The Kadrak and the Empire' The Kadrak plateau is home to a number of ruined cities, many of which are supposedly haunted. Entire regions are considered forbidden, and are rumored to contain mazes and oubliettes of long-dead wizards. Minotaurs, Giant Insects, Terror Birds, and Lycanthropes roam some lands between cities. All in all, the Kadrak is much safer than the regions around it, and much larger portions of it are inhabited and protected by humans, halflings, dwarves, and elves. In many of the major cities exist sorcerors and priests of various orders, and many weird tales have been attributed to their strange experiments and machinations. 'Other Topics' The Duskenings The Kadrak Plateau The Waien/The Wastes The Ice Lands Armies of the Empire Deities and the Strange Gods Technology Category:Setting Category:Setting